


ten little heroes

by whatsanaccounttoagod



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Murder, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Family Member Death, Future Fic, Light Angst, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Psychosis, Singing, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 02:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17889662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsanaccounttoagod/pseuds/whatsanaccounttoagod
Summary: A mother sings her children to sleep with the rises and falls of the heroes of their world.





	ten little heroes

**Author's Note:**

> i... hope this isnt horrible lol
> 
> so my baby sister is like one and of course that means baby music all the time! so i got ten little indians stuck in my head but then i got angsty and changed it to avengers verses and then i wrote so yeet
> 
> the scenes take place at different times, though the first and last are at the same time. the timeline isnt by any means chronological or anything apologies for any confusion!!
> 
> enjoy my suffering

"One little, two little, three little heroes," the mother sang. "Four little, five little, six little heroes. Seven little, eight little, nine little heroes. Ten little heroes of the world."

"Who were the heroes?" a little boy asked.

"Victor, they're the  _ Avengers! _ " his sister responded.

Their mother started up again…

* * *

 

_ "The Captain was an honorable man, _

_ His army known throughout the land…" _

Steve started awake, though most wouldn't notice anything out of place. He rolled over and found his gently waking best friend -  _ boyfriend, _ he corrected, this wasn't the '40's anymore - alive. Intact. Well, more intact than Steve had expected.

Dreams had a way of distorting things. He tried to push back the vision of him driving his shield into Stark's heart, but the face wasn't Stark's...

_ "...He let power go to his head, _

_ And left his friend for dead." _

He needed to apologize, if he ever saw the billionaire again.

* * *

 

_ "Tony was a billionaire, _

_ Betrayed by those who claimed to care…" _

Tony screamed.

And screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

But nobody came.

His fiance was off on a business trip. Rhodey was off doing official military stuff. Peter was in college.

But he couldn't be sure of that. Everywhere he looked, all he saw were stars and dust.

"Boss, Pepper is calling," FRIDAY announced, which probably meant something closer to, "You're having a panic attack, so I called her for you."

"Tony?"

_ "...To save himself, returned in kind, _

_ No wonder he lost his mind." _

"Pepper," he murmured. "Thank God."

"You're okay," she told him. "You're here. You've saved him. You've saved everybody."

"I'm okay," he repeated.

"It's April 11, 2022. You're currently in your penthouse in upstate New York. You're Tony Stark, and you saved the world - no, the  _ universe _ \- three years ago."

"I'm okay," he repeated again. "He's okay?"

"Peter's fine. Rhodey and I are fine."

"Thank God."

* * *

 

_ "Black Widow fulfilled her name, _

_ Played on both sides of the game…" _

Natasha's phone rang once, twice, thrice.

She answered it before she had to remember the word for  _ four times _ and, in standard Natasha Romanov style, remained silent.

"Hey, Aunt Nat," a young voice on the other end announced.

"Hey, kid. You got trouble?"

"Not exactly." Peter shuffled something around. "I just- Would you happen to be near Queens Hospital?"

She bit back a smile. "Shouldn't you be asking Stark about that?"

"You might be best for this."

Nat hummed and glanced at her surroundings. "Lucky for you, I happen to be right in the area. See you in five."

And, in true Natasha Romanov style, she hung up without a response.

_ "...Her past her long and painful fall, _

_ Trapped in blood-red walls." _

When she glanced at the broken, torn body of May Parker, Nat knew why Peter had called her instead.

It didn't stop her from wishing he'd shown anyone else.

* * *

 

_ "The Thunder God, through countless trials, _

_ His hopeful spirit ne'er defiled…" _

Thor glared across the room at the ambassador whose ability to dodge the subject completely almost rivaled his sibling's.

"So you're saying I can either pay you more money than we currently have for our safe passage, or you'll obliterate us?" The god smiled to take the edge off his next statement. "Bold of you to assume we wouldn't obliterate you first."

The silver-tongued ambassador swallowed. "Of course that's not what we mean!"

"Then you'll allow us to pass quietly through your airspace?"

"Well-"

"We require no escort or assistance. We simply wish to pass through without causing a fight." The last few battles he'd been through had nearly obliterated Asgard. The few who were left, along with the ship's decent defenses, could certainly hold up against Midgardian planes… but he didn't want to fight today.

_ "...A world lost in a blink of an eye, _

_ King wishing to resign." _

"Of course, King Thor!" another, wiser official announced. She glared at her objecting companion and whispered something to him. He blanched and quickly nodded his agreement.

"Thank you. It was a pleasure to meet you, miss."

He didn't like being king. At least not those parts.

He wished Loki were there.

* * *

 

_ "The Hawk had been a family man, _

_ His home once found and lost again…" _

Clint scrolled through some of the pictures he'd saved before.

Saved. Unlike his family.

They'd saved the world. They'd restored everyone.

But when he arrived back home, nobody was there.

Nothing but bloodstains, dust, and a message.

"Look what you did."

_ "...Meant to retire, but lost his head, _

_ When he found his family dead." _

Laura. Cooper. Lila. Nathaniel.

Clint found a hand here, an ear there… Whatever had been done wasn't pleasant.

He came across another message, punctuated by Nate's decomposing, screaming head.

"You abandoned them."

Clint resisted the urge to throw the nearest thing at the barn wall (or throw up) and carved his own message into the dirt.

"I will find you."

So he set out, not returning for many years.

* * *

 

_ "Banner was a casualty, _

_ An accident to turn him green…" _

Bruce'd done this before. Just patch up the wounded. Stay back. Don't get involved.

But watching everything, everyone fall around him… He had to at least try to do something.

He tried, and tried, and tried, and yet the world fell around him as the Hulk resisted.

"Banner!" Tony yelled, startling the doctor awake.

He growled before quickly being shushed by his companion.

"It's okay. Just a nightmare," the billionaire murmured. "You're good."

"Is it over?"

He bit his lip and glanced away momentarily. "I hope so."

Green-tinted dreams - memories - clawed their way to the forefront of Bruce's mind. "Has he come back yet?"

Tony looked away again, this time without looking back. "No."

_ "...The war put out the light inside, _

_ He lost his will to fight." _

"I never really wanted to fight, but… I hate not having a choice."

"I know."

And in a way, they both knew.

* * *

 

_ "The Falcon was the Captain's friend, _

_ Knew his loss, and saw his end…" _

Sam wasn't the most well-known Avenger, though after the Civil War, he was certainly among one of the most hated.

Honestly? It didn't matter. He just wanted to settle down, help people, do some good in the world.

So he ended up being the Avengers' designated therapist.

It had its pros and cons. The pay was good, but the clients were really,  _ really _ fucked up. Like, why-the-fuck-would-a-human-being-willingly-do-this fucked up.

So it was really no surprise that every story left him at a loss for words, short of the ones he'd witnessed himself or were known of world-wide.

(Fuck conspiracy theorists, honestly. Not that he was Stark's biggest fan or anything, but the sheer amount of trauma that  _ one _ event caused him was nothing to be laughed at.)

It didn't surprise him that Steve wanted to hang up the shield and suit, but Sam still asked, "Why?"

Steve looked away a moment. Breathed in, out, in, out. Looked back up. "I almost killed Tony. I thought I  _ had, _ until he resurfaced a couple days later."

"You know he's-"

"That's not all." He paused. "But it  _ is _ the last straw. I'm losing myself, Sam. Every time I go back out, I risk everything more and more.

_ "...Retired, helped them through the fall, _

_ Little-known, yet missed by all." _

So here he is, trying to get the world's most fucked-up humans to cope because  _ apparently _ none of them learned any coping methods but avoidance and self-destructive tendencies.

* * *

 

_ "The Witch was hated by them all, _

_ They blamed her for the world's fall…" _

It was only Peter's quick whisper of, "Seven," that saved her from yet another projectile. Spitballs, rotten fruit, knives, bullets… They all made their way toward her eventually.

She and Peter had worked out a system. His now-refined spider-sense warned him of danger to Wanda if he focused, and he'd whisper where something would come from as he escorted her around. Despite all the good she'd done, nobody trusted her. Nobody believed her.

_ "...Refused to let their words ring true, _

_ And built the Avengers anew." _

As they entered the U.N. building, the police escort around the two stopped by the door.

"Are you ready?" Peter asked, grinning.

Wanda pushed the doors open and smiled at the gathered ambassadors and remaining Avengers, the latter group comprised only of Vision and Thor.

"Yeah," she whispered back.

* * *

 

_ "The Vision, from a darker fate, _

_ The Cradle built him, he was saved…" _

He couldn't phase through walls anymore, or shapeshift, or even fly like he used to. The Princess and Stark had rebuilt and improved his body, but they couldn't return what they had destroyed.

It was okay. Vision understood. The Mind Stone wasn't all he was, and it needed to be destroyed to prevent another war.

But by the time he came back almost three years later, he wished they had left him dead.

Death wasn't so bad for an AI. In a way, he knew he would never really experience death. His first one led to a complete memory dump and a last-ditch effort to change the military's nuclear codes. Just loop the change process infinitely, run an RNG to determine the new codes. Even a beginning programmer could do that by themself.

His second death was painful both to experience and unlive, but not half as bad as it could have been. If anything, the process hurt Wanda worse than he.

The third… Imagine someone ripping your heart out while you're still alive, and you're also on fire, and you can't even scream. But it was also a quiet waking, 

Once, Stark had suggested he rest. "Maybe get some shut-eye," he'd said.

Had Vision had real eyes to shut -  _ real, _ he chuckled to himself - he would have kept them wide open. His thoughts were no longer controlled and organized, or maybe that was just another broken process.

_ "...The Titan killed him once again, _

_ Once more saved by friends." _

Once, Sam had asked if Vision was doing okay. Vision had only nodded in return.

"You sure? You've seemed less… you… lately."

"You try having an entire piece of your mind ripped out and destroyed not once, but  _ twice _ , and then tell me you'd be exactly the same." It wasn't Sam's fault, but Vision was tired of people commenting on it or staring at him and simply  _ not knowing for sure why. _ No wonder people went insane.

"Fair enough." He shuffled around some papers and shrugged. "But if you ever want to talk, I'm here."

Vision nodded again, knowing damn well he'd never take up that offer.

* * *

 

_ "The Spider, witty and naive, _

_ Youth would not stop the web he weaved…" _

The father kissed the mother before stepping back. "Hope you haven't traumatized them  _ too _ much."

"I'm not telling them anything they don't already know," she countered.

"Be gentle." He sat down and kissed his wife again. "I'm going to see how everyone's doing. Don't wait up for me, okay, MJ?"

"Daddy, what's in the bag?" the daughter asked.

MJ glanced over casually and took up her usual snarky attitude. "Yeah,  _ Dad _ , what's in there?"

He stuttered a moment before announcing, "Food," and pulling out a tupperware dish. "Figured Aunt Nat and Mr. Rogers are getting tired of cooking for everyone."

MJ smiled knowingly and nodded. "Stay safe, okay?"

"You know I will." After another quick peck for everyone, he dashed out, itching to get wherever he was going.

Wanda greeted him at the compound. "Hey, Pete."

"Wanda," he nodded. "How's everyone?"

"The same, mostly."

"Has Mr. Stark…?"

Wanda glanced away momentarily. "He's barely here. Alive, sure, but still stuck. Um… Banner thinks we need to take him out of lockdown."

"Take him out- Of course we do!" Peter yelled, slamming his fist through the counter before he realized what he'd done. "Shit. Sorry."

"It's fine. I get it. But we can't. I… I got in his head. He doesn't see  _ us, _ he sees captors, enemies, betrayal…" She shook her head. "We tried to let him out once, and he almost killed Rogers."

"I want to talk to him." He shuffled through the bag and pulled out a bag full of snickerdoodles. "Also, these are for you."

"Aw, you remembered!" she teased. "You know where he is. I'll call the rest down for movie night?"

"Sounds great."

When Peter arrived at Tony's door, FRIDAY interrupted his entrance. "Peter?"

"Yeah, FRI?"

"Boss doesn't respond well to being called 'Mr. Stark' anymore. Would you mind…?"

"That's the plan." He inhaled and opened the unlocked door.

Tony wasn't visibly restrained, but he froze, leaning against the wall and staring at the door.

"Hi, Tony." Peter gently stepped forward. "How are you?"

He yelped as his former mentor grabbed his wrist but didn't pull away. Tony glanced between the arm he was holding and Peter's face for a few moments before whispering, "Peter?"

He could've cried with how happy he was in that moment. Actually, he did. "Tony," he muttered, leaning in for a hug.

Tony dropped the arm and backed away suddenly, eyes wide.

"Shit. I'm sorry."

"No- no. It's fine. Sorry."

It pained Peter to see his father-figure like this. The Avengers had basically become a second family throughout the years, and seeing how all of them degraded over the years… "You're okay. It's September 7, 2035. Your name is Tony Stark, and  _ you are the strongest person in the entire fucking world, _ okay?"

Through the haze of the memories Tony couldn't escape, he whispered, "I think that title belongs to you."

Peter smiled. "Do you wanna join everyone for movie night?"

Maybe Tony was dangerous, but it was also clear he needed  _ out _ . He nodded and crossed the room, hesitating a few feet from the door.

"It's okay."

That was all it took for Tony to let himself out again and run down the hall. Peter caught up and matched the billionaire's pace.

Out in the common room, Wanda, Natasha, Steve, and Bruce had arranged themselves across various couches. It didn't escape Peter's notice that Steve took the farthest from the empty one. It must not have escaped Tony's, either, because after settling himself in, he murmured, "I'm sorry."

"I understand," Steve responded. "It's good to see you again, Stark."

Tony looked away, but didn't move.

"You wanna pick?" Natasha offered. It was technically her turn, but since Tony hadn't been out and coherent in months, she figured he had it coming.

"Whatever you want," he croaked.

"Any specific genre?"

He paused. "Comedy."

Nat found an old, black-and-white T.V. show and popped it on.

After a few episodes, Peter stretched and lifted his sleeping mentor. "It's been fun. Thanks, guys."

"Thank  _ you, _ Peter." Steve shook his head. "I haven't seen him this coherent since the last time Pepper had a break."

And if Peter silently promised to visit more often, well, nobody had to know.

_ "...An optimist with heart of gold, _

_ Has yet to sell his soul." _

**Author's Note:**

> these are by no means meant to apply to any one persons experiences with anything
> 
> for updates feel free to follow me on [waterfall.social: starks](https://starks.waterfall.social)


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